Tag Archives: Art Center College of Design

Art Center Trustee Charles Floyd Johnson Honored for Creative Vision by Liberty Hill Foundation

Producer, filmmaker and Art Center Trustee Charles Floyd Johnson, who has produced television shows such as NCIS; JAG and Magnum, P.I., was honored with Liberty Hill’s 2013 Creative Vision Award at the Upton Sinclair Dinner and Awards Celebration on April 23, 2013 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills.

Charles F. Johnson with Liberty Hill Executive Director Shane Goldsmith and board member Professor Ange-Marie Hancock, a Liberty Hill Board member.

Trustee Charles Floyd Johnson with Liberty Hill Executive Director Shane Goldsmith (left) and Professor Ange-Marie Hancock, a Liberty Hill Board member.

Throughout his career, Johnson has strived to create equal and balanced opportunities for minorities in the entertainment industry. While studying law at Howard University in the late 1960s, he was active in marches and protests during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1971, he attended the Professional Theater Workshop in Hollywood, then found work in the mail room at Universal Studios before being promoted to the Business Affairs Department.

While growing up he was fascinated by stories his father told him about the Tuskegee Airmen. Johnson worked for more than 20 years to bring the story of African-American fighter pilots to the big screen. Alongside executive producer George Lucas, he produced the 2012 movie Red Tails, which won the NAACP Image Award for Best Picture.

“These young men were not encouraged to fly for their country,” said Johnson. “But they triumphed over adversity. These were men who fought racism…they did it successfully and they were heroes, not victims.”

Liberty Hill is dedicated to advancing social change through grants, campaigns and leadership training by investing in community organizers who help bring equality and opportunity to Los Angeles.

Related:

Art Center Graduates Earning Up to $25,000 More

Coroflot.com Survey Respondents Show Art Center Grads Making More Compared to Other Art Schools

Coroflot.com infographic of median graduate earnings

Coroflot.com’s recent 2013 Creative Employment Snapshot survey shows that of the 10 most represented U.S. colleges and universities that survey respondents attended, graduates from Art Center College of Design earn salaries that range on average from $66,000 to $124,000, or $25,000 more on average than graduates from competing colleges and universities. This goes for both recent grads and industry veterans.

Art Center graduate earnings were compared against similar schools, including Rhode Island School of Design, Rochester Institute of Technology, Pratt Institute, College for Creative Studies, Academy of Art University, School of Visual Arts, Parsons New School, University of Cincinnati and Savannah College of Art and Design.

In addition to earnings, the survey included infographics that show which U.S. cities have the highest concentration of working creative professionals, the job titles with the highest salary ranges and freelance rates, company benefits, how graduates are landing their jobs, and how advanced degrees pay off. Since 2001, Coroflot has collected and reported salary information from thousands of design and creative professionals worldwide.

Launched in 1997 by the team behind Core77, Coroflot is a career and community site made for creative professionals by creative professionals. Coroflot.com connects fellow designers with career opportunities by creating better professional experiences, in areas like industrial design, 3D modeling, architecture, fashion, illustration, graphic design, user experience and more.

Learn more about the survey results at Coroflot.com.

Alum Nicholas Alan Cope’s book launch March 28 in New York highlights seven-year project documenting Los Angeles architecture

COPE_WHITEWASH_69

From ‘Whitewash’ by Nicholas Alan Cope, published by powerHouse Books.

Nicholas Alan Cope sees Los Angeles as a city of contrasts, with “dueling public narratives of glamour and cynicism” legible in its stark, modern architecture. In his new book of black and white photographs, Whitewash, he dramatizes that contrast by making elegant use of the extremes of light and shadow produced by the intensity of the Southern California sun.

Published by New York’s powerHouse Books, with a foreword by California-born, Paris-based fashion designer Rick Owens, and distributed by Random House, the book’s April release will be celebrated with a launch party at Mondo Cane in Tribeca on Thurs., March 28, on the opening night of a gallery exhibition of Cope’s large-format photographs from the book. The exhibition continues through April 13.

Continue reading →

Alum Jason Hill wins MIT Accelerate Grand Prize for next-gen prosthetic design

Art Center alum Jason Hill, a human factors researcher and industrial designer, is part of a four-person, interdisciplinary team that won the $10,000 Grand Prize in the MIT Accelerate Contest, for a prosthetic socket designed to change its shape throughout a patient’s lifetime.

Hill and his team have formed The BETH Project (Benevolent Technologies for Health), dedicated to developing high-impact, low-cost healthcare solutions for underserved populations. Their February 19 win over seven other teams qualifies The BETH Project for a spot in the series’ final round, the MIT Launch Contest, whose top prize is $100,000. The results of the Launch Contest will be announced May 15, 2013.

Continue reading →

TEDxYouth at Caltech: Brain Food

TEDxYouth served up generous helpings of Brain Food at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Among the cooks in the kitchen: Art Center Trustee Bill Gross; Professor and Director of Sustainability Initiatives Heidrun Mumper-Drumm; and Product Design alumna Mariana Prieto, who completed the Designmatters Concentration in Art and Design for Social Impact.

The day-long event took place January 19, 2013, and 8-minute videos of the talks were recently made available online. If you have an appetite for fresh ideas, watch!

A Perfect Storm of Opportunity: Bill Gross at TEDxYouth@Caltech

Bill Gross is a lifelong entrepreneur who has been starting companies since he was 12 years old. He has personally started more than 100 companies in the last 42 years, of which more than 40 have gone public or been acquired. Gross is the Founder and CEO of Idealab, a “company factory” based in Pasadena, which he started in 1996. Gross is credited with starting the first online business directory company with CitySearch, the first online car retailed with CarsDirect, the first paid search engine with Goto.com/Overture, and the longest-running technology incubator where he has been the creator of all these companies. A graduate of the California Institute of Technology, Gross currently serves on its Board of Trustees. He also serves on the Board of the Art Center College of Design, and more than 20 technology companies in California.

Continue reading →

Henrik Fisker
 to address Beverly Hills business forum April 9

Henrik FiskerNotable Art Center alumnus and leading electric car designer Henrik Fisker will be speaking at Beverly Hills Tomorrow, a forum sponsored by the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, on Tuesday, April 9, 2013. The founder and former executive chairman of Fisker Automotive, whose tenacity and passion to pursue a childhood dream of becoming a car designer became a reality after completing Art Center’s renowned Transportation Design program in 1989.

In addition to Fisker, the forum will feature: Emcee Frank Mottek, veteran broadcaster and host of the top-rated Business Hour and anchor of Money News, on KNX 1070 News Radio; Michael Burns (Vice Chairman of Lionsgate Films), who helped engineer the acquisition of Summit Entertainment; Dr. Eduardo Marbán (Director, Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute); and Lynda Resnick (Vice Chairman, Roll Global, a holding company whose business divisions include Teleflora, POM Wonderful and Fiji Water).

The Chamber, a membership organization founded in 1923, works with city officials, local businesses and the community at large to promote the local economy. The audience will include business people ranging from small business owners to chief executives and entrepreneurs.

To attend, register by April 5. For more information, visit beverlyhillschamber.com/tomorrow.

Alum Bruce Osborn photographs tsunami survivors for National Geographic Japan

Bruce OsbornThe March 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine’s Japan edition features Art Center alum Bruce Osborn’s photographs of parents and children in Tohoku, two years after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the region, resulting in a nuclear disaster and the deaths and displacement of thousands of residents. The vivid, colorful portraits, taken against the backdrop of affected areas, capture the resilient spirit of those who live there.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Osborn has lived in Japan since 1980. After studying Photography at Art Center College of Design, he worked as the photographer for Phonograph Record Magazine before moving to Japan where he continues to work as a photographer and filmmaker. His Oyako project, which takes its name from the Japanese word for “parent and child,” grew out of a series of photographs he began in 1982 and continues as a popular annual tradition throughout Japan on the fourth Sunday of July.

A Decade That Matters: Leading the Way in Social Innovation

Ten years after its founding, Designmatters is making a difference within and beyond Art Center.

By ALEX CARSWELL

“This University is not maintained…merely to help its graduates have an economic advantage in the life struggle. There is certainly a greater purpose, and I’m sure you recognize it.”

—John F. Kennedy, October 14, 1960, speaking to students at the University of Michigan

Faculty member La Mer Walker consults with students and UN Population Fund partner Christian Delsol.

As he campaigned for the White House, John F. Kennedy challenged America’s younger generation to use their talent not just to better themselves, but also to somehow make a difference in the world. Shortly after taking office in 1961, President Kennedy formed the Peace Corps, a transformational government agency that celebrated America’s core values, galvanized our national will and has facilitated service in support of that “greater purpose” for more than half a century.

Forty years later, Art Center students were surveyed on their desire to have some sort of curricular “Peace Corps-type” opportunity. The overwhelmingly positive response set the wheels in motion for what would soon become Designmatters at Art Center, the College’s innovative social-impact initiative. In addition to the Peace Corps model, the brain trust that conceived and developed Designmatters also had other influences. Erica Clark—then Art Center’s senior vice president of International Initiatives—had investigated a number of socially engaged design programs at European institutions. And here at Art Center, “Community Workshop” was already a popular graphic design class that engaged students in projects with local social-impact objectives.

Continue reading →

Zack Snyder Opens Dot Independent Film Festival at Art Center College of Design

Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, Tom Kuntz and Matthew Rolston speaking at March 16 event honoring student films from around the world

Zack Snyder at Art Center

Zack Snyder at Art Center. Photo by Chuck Spangler.

March 12, 2013, Pasadena, Calif.—Visionary director and Art Center College of Design alumnus Zack Snyder (Man of Steel, 300) is set to open DIFF | LA, the Dot Independent Film Festival, the premiere student-led film festival on the West Coast taking place Saturday, March 16, 2013 from 9 a.m. – 11 p.m. on the Art Center College of Design Hillside Campus at 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, Calif., 91103.

In addition to screening official selections in the categories of Directing, Cinematography, Writing and Editing, the event will feature presentations by Snyder and the critically acclaimed directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks), Emmy-winning commercial director Tom Kuntz (Old Spice, Skittles), and legendary photographer and filmmaker Matthew Rolston (Kelly Rowland, Christina Aguilera).

Continue reading →

Designmatters Welcomes Fellow-in-Residency from Ireland, Sponsored Project Representative from Chile

Dr. Muireann McMahon

Dr. Muireann McMahon, Designmatters Post-Doctoral Fellow-in-Residency. Photo by Alex Aristei.

Art Center welcomes Dr. Muireann McMahon who joins the Designmatters Department as the inaugural Designmatters Post-Doctoral Fellow-in-Residency through August.

McMahon is dedicating her six-month sabbatical, generously funded by the University of Limerick in Ireland, to contribute her teaching and research expertise to a variety of courses and projects during her time at the college.

For the Spring term, McMahon is embedded in the Product Design Sustainability course led by Heidrun Mumper-Drumm and Dice Yamaguchi. Her intent is to gain a close understanding of the transdisciplinary teaching methods and project-based learning that occurs across the college, with a particular focus on studying Designmatters courses, and the collaborative models the department has in place to structure social impact projects that yield real-world outcomes.

We caught up with McMahon during a mid-term presentation by a different group of Designmatters students, collaborating on the Coaniquem project led by Graphic Design faculty member Guillaume Wolf. The in-depth creative proposals they unveiled—for a campaign to raise awareness and funds to prevent and treat childhood burns—belied the short six-week time frame the 12 students had to develop them.

Continue reading →